SERBIA: Chill rain matched a bleak mood in Serbia last night as first results in the election for a new president indicated that the candidate favoured by the overthrown Yugoslav president Mr Slobodan Milosevic, had polled far more votes than anticipated.
Mr Vojislav Seselj, leader of the Serbian Radical Party and the man Mr Milosevic had urged his followers to support in appeals from his Hague prison cell, has won a sweeping 23.8 per cent of the vote, according to early returns.
Mr Vojislav Kostunica, the current Yugoslav President and the man who replaced Mr Milosevic in the popular revolt of October 5th, 2000 almost two years ago to the day, polled 31.2 per cent, while the main other democratic candidate, Mr Miroljub Labus, had 26.2 per cent in the early returns.
Until these early results, which election officials said were unlikely to change substantially, were announced, most pundits were predicting eventual victory for Mr Kostunica, - but only after a run-off against his nearest rival, the current Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Labus.
With 11 candidates and after a campaign marked more by bitchy slanging-matches than by policy proclamations, it was unlikely any single candidate would win the 50 per cent needed to be declared outright victor this morning. The expected second round of voting would be held on October 13th.
The principal difference between the two main contenders is that Mr Kostunica, a law professor, advocates a steady pace of economic reform and integration into Europe. Mr Labus, an economist, wants to see Serbia on a far faster track to modernisation. He is backed by the Prime Minister, Mr Zoran Djindjic, another advocate of swift reform.
Many ordinary Serbians, already facing higher prices coupled with huge job lay-offs in the struggle to catch up with the rest of Europe, feel that the coming months will be slightly less painful for them under Mr Kostunica.
Others, especially in the big cities and among the intellectual elite, see Mr Kostunica as too close to the old regime. They are also wary because he will probably attract the votes of former Communists and nationalists in a second round of voting once their preferred candidates have been knocked out of the race.
Mr Kostunica, who is expected to call general elections in Serbia if he wins, said: "It would be rational if it would all end in a single round of elections."
Meanwhile, Serbia's current President, Mr Milan Milutinovic, completes his five-year term at the end of the year and cannot stand for re-election; not least because he is soon is expected to join Mr Milosevic at the UN war crimes court in The Hague charged with war crimes in Kosovo.